The Death of Encyclopedia Dramatica (UPDATE: It Lives Once More)

[Soviet Heavy]

Even a week later, I'm still shocked at the overnight annihilation of the site and the rebirth as Oh Internet. For all the disgusting and disturbing shit that was on ED, it was a cornerstone of internet culture. The shock and awe articles were intended to provoke, and the new site just seems to be giving into being just another meme wiki.

As sick and gross as Encyclopedia Dramatica was, I am sad to see it go, and I truly hope that someone archived it on their own before it was destroyed.

EDIT
Turns out that the internet is a necromancer, as the site has been reborn. Things never die I guess.

 

[daltonlaffs]

Please tell me you are really being serious right now

It takes a lot to offend or upset me personally, to the point that it has only happened a handful of times at the hands of a handful of truly dreadful people. But ED has always taken things a step further than funny. Their entire mission seemed to be to hurt and upset people for laughs at their expense. It takes a particularly sick person to actually enjoy that kind of deliberate torment. And it wasn't just those that deserved it, it was innocent people by the thousands.

I cheer for whatever circumstances have erased it from existence. This new "Oh Internet" will hopefully not actually succeed ED with the same disgusting mission plan, and it looks to me at a glance like this one is actually about having fun with memes, not attacking people for laughs. You will not be missed, ED. I hope.

 

[Lilani]

A cornerstone of Internet culture? More like a cesspool of trolls, porn, and worn-out memes.

...

On second thought, you might be onto something there.

In any case, I won't miss it. I only ever went there to learn more about the origins of some memes, but then I discovered knowyourmeme.com and I was able to get the same information without the porn or pop-ups.

 

[Hader]

It was unique, I will give it that. But it wasn't something I would call great either. There was a lot of bad shit on there. Some funny things too, I got a good laugh from it a few times. But overall, I can't say I would wholly respect the site too much.

 

[daltonlaffs]

Now we just need to focus our forces on 4chan...

Not to derail, but as someone who has dealt extensively with both sites, 4chan and ED are far different from each other.

4chan: Bizarre internet shit that generally isn't offensive, or is at least humorous about it when it is. You have to go to 4chan manually and enter a board to even see any of it, so it's entirely your choice. Just ignore it if you dislike it.

ED: Offensive internet shit that is nothing else, not even humorous most of the time. Unlike 4chan, you can become involved with ED without wanting to be -- many people or groups of people have found themselves attacked by an ED article or two for no fair reason, and any attempts at removing said personal attacks are just met with even more of them.

4chan shouldn't be taken down. Some people genuinely enjoy the medium of an image board, and if you get into the right mindset, that site is hilarious.

 

[EllEzDee]

It was utterly fantastic. It had all the best info on the origins of memes, along with some great - albeit offensive to the simple minded - pages. The mods were complete and utter shit though. I mean utter, utter shit. There was a pretty ugly girl that they'd made into a mod and used to suck up to, along with a pair of cocks that'd travel around backing each other up on pages. I think it's called "sock puppeting"...

As much of a cesspool as it was, it was the best internet culture website out there. Now we have the money grabbing fuck-bags at rocketboom with a complete monopoly on the "meme noob" websites.

What was horrible is how it just disappeared. There was no warning, the site just went down saying it had technical difficulty with a link to their "new blog". The next day, the site was removed and the URL would redirect to shitty "oh internet".

EDIT: It's amazing how many people are so hurt by that website. ED wasn't trying to be crappycracked.com, or knowyourmoneymakingmemes.com
It existed to report sincerely on internet culture. That's it. If it offended you, then you shouldn't be on the intronet.

 

[Soviet Heavy]

I just can't understand why the creators of the site changed their Shock Value website into a ripoff of know-your-meme. The reason people went to ED was because it was offensive. It was the purest form of expression: Write whatever the fuck you want and be an asshole.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Christmas came early, apparently.

Works fine by me. I prefer LurkMore, anyway.

 

[Lilani]

EDIT: It's amazing how many people are so hurt by that website. ED wasn't trying to be crappycracked.com, or knowyourmoneymakingmemes.com
It existed to report sincerely on internet culture. That's it. If it offended you, then you shouldn't be on the intronet.

It's not that it offended me. It's that I'd like to read about Boxxy and Shoop da Whoop without having to deal with toon porn banner ads with the words FAP FAP FAP FAP FAP FAP FAP flying all over the place. That sort of thing just isn't my "thing."

 

[Saviordd1]

It was utterly fantastic. It had all the best info on the origins of memes, along with some great - albeit offensive to the simple minded - pages. The mods were complete and utter shit though. I mean utter, utter shit. There was a pretty ugly girl that they'd made into a mod and used to suck up to, along with a pair of cocks that'd travel around backing each other up on pages. I think it's called "sock puppeting"...

As much of a cesspool as it was, it was the best internet culture website out there. Now we have the money grabbing fuck-bags at rocketboom with a complete monopoly on the "meme noob" websites.

What was horrible is how it just disappeared. There was no warning, the site just went down saying it had technical difficulty with a link to their "new blog". The next day, the site was removed and the URL would redirect to shitty "oh internet".

EDIT: It's amazing how many people are so hurt by that website. ED wasn't trying to be crappycracked.com, or knowyourmoneymakingmemes.com
It existed to report sincerely on internet culture. That's it. If it offended you, then you shouldn't be on the intronet.

This times 65

 

[MisterGobbles]

I don't understand how people could possibly be offended by ED, because it was so goddamn ridiculous. The funniness of the site depended on the individual article, but it's still really sad to see it go, especially now that it's domain redirects to that mockery of a website "Oh Internet".

 

[DudeistBelieve]

wait we lost ED?

That is a rather shame, it was a good tongue/cheek place to understand certain memes. Sonichu, for instance. Or that AppleMilk whore. Amber Lamps. Seeing the argument against Irate Gamer...

ah well. Good riddence.

 

[Plurralbles]

it was a sad day for the internet: Only because it was something that I could wave my arms at when somone brought up censoring other sites, "if THIS is acceptable, THAT is definitely!"

 

[thiosk]

The only thing I ever liked about dramatica was the picture they used for the palestinian uprising against the israeli army.

It was the final fantasy I squad, fighter blackbelt white and black mage, battling a group of imps.

CLASSIC

*listen to it in your head*
do do do dooooo, do do do. do do do. do do do do doooooo do do do doooooooo! manamanamanamana do do do dooooo, do do bum do do do do do bum do doooo ba doo dooo dooooooo! NA NA NA dodododododo DA DA DOO dooobledoobledoobledoooo

 

[CM156_v1legacy]

*listen to it in your head*
do do do dooooo, do do do. do do do. do do do do doooooo do do do doooooooo! manamanamanamana do do do dooooo, do do bum do do do do do bum do doooo ba doo dooo dooooooo! NA NA NA dodododododo DA DA DOO dooobledoobledoobledoooo

Well, damn, you got me there.


OT: I loved that site, but only because it was so evil. I grew up with a man who was rarely afraid to speak his mind, and that is somewhat like what ED is. They don't care who they offend, provided someone is offended. To me, that is rather funny.

I DON'T aprove of all the porn though. And how they seem to hate anyone and everyone.

 

[BonsaiK]

Even a week later, I'm still shocked at the overnight annihilation of the site and the rebirth as Oh Internet. For all the disgusting and disturbing shit that was on ED, it was a cornerstone of internet culture. The shock and awe articles were intended to provoke, and the new site just seems to be giving into being just another meme wiki.

As sick and gross as Encyclopedia Dramatica was, I am sad to see it go, and I truly hope that someone archived it on their own before it was destroyed.

The whole thing has been archived and is being reconstructed and ressurected at a Swiss site. Most of the original articles are already there and intact, but minus a few pictures and/or details that are still being recovered. Instead of .com at the end try .ch (the country code for Switzerland) and you should find it.

And yeah, Oh Internet is awful, not funny at all.

 

[Satosuke]

As I've said before, ED was the only site fearless enough to name names.

While, for the most part, the mods kept actual dox off the info pages of specific internet personalities, (until they all lost their motivation and their marbles) there were many pages devoted to cataloging some of the more infamous attention whores and drama llamas out there, and a lot of them deserved to have their dubious internet exploits chronicled, both as a source of humor, but as a cautionary tale to everyone else, to not do the same stupid shit that they did.

Yes, there have been times when certain info on ED led to undeserving disruption of someone's personal life, and since the lines between truth and parody on the site were as clear as mud, there probably were a lot of legal concerns. But the fact remains that anyone who saw the pages on those drama whores, especially the extreme cases, not only got a laugh, but probably took a step back from their computers and pondered just how seriously they were taking their own online lives. Moments of introspection like that are invaluable.

 

[Bon_Clay]

EDIT: It's amazing how many people are so hurt by that website. ED wasn't trying to be crappycracked.com, or knowyourmoneymakingmemes.com
It existed to report sincerely on internet culture. That's it. If it offended you, then you shouldn't be on the intronet.

Exactly. If you didn't find it funny, why the fuck were you going to it so much as to be offended. The site served a specific purpose and was intended for only specific people. But oh well I haven't gone it in quite a long time anyway.

 

[Cid Silverwing]

A cornerstone of Internet culture? More like a cesspool of trolls, porn, and worn-out memes.

This times a million.

Nothing of value was lost when ED died.